• Introduction to digital logic and microcode
• Conventional Von Neumann architecture
• The internal representation of information
• Instruction formats and addressing, instruction sets
• Machine and assembly language programming
• The fetch/execute model of computation
• RISC/CISC, SIMD/MIMD parallel architectures
• Memory architecture and algorithms: cache, virtual memory, paging, segmentation
• I/O architecture: interrupts, memory-mapped I/O
• Overview of distributed systems, multiprocessors, networks, parallel systems

Henry M. Walker

Office: Science 2420
Telephone: extension 4208
E-mail: walker@cs.grinnell.edu

Office hours are posted weekly on the bulletin board outside Science 2420, with additional hours possible by appointment. You may reserve a half hour meeting by signing up on the weekly schedule, but please sign up at least a day in advance.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Structured Computer Organization, Fourth Edition,. Prentice-Hall, 1999.

References: The following manuals may provide useful additional commentary for the elements of Pentium assembly langauge.

• Intel's Pentium III Manuals:
  These provide the definitive word on the Pentium and its instructions. While these are technically complete and good for reference, they may nor may not be easy reading for beginning assembly-language programmers.
  Note: The order of instructions operands for Intel assembly is reversed from the order used for AT&T Pentium Assembly -- as used by the gcc compiler and as assembler!
  • IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 1: Basic Architecture (pdf format: 4,005K bytes, 422 pages)
  • IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference (pdf format: 6,593 Kbytes, 964 pages)
  • IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3: System Programming Guide (pdf format: 6,269 Kbytes, 696 pages)
  • Intel® Pentium® 4 and Intel® Xeon^TM Processor Optimization (pdf format: 1,505 Kbytes, 333 pages)

  (These are large files, so will take some time to load. While one copy has been downloaded and is available locally through the above links, please do not make additional copies for own account.)

• Dominique Thiebau, The Art of Assembly Language Programming, http://cs.smith.edu/~thiebaut/ArtOfAssembly/ArtofAsm.html .
  
  This provides a nice description of the Pentium and its assembly language. Terminology follows general Intel conventions, but may not contain specific elements of GNU syntax.

• Dean Elsner, Jay Fenlason, and friends, Using as : The GNU Assembler, http://www.gnu.org/manual/gas-2.9.1/html_node/as_toc.html
  
  The basic assembler used on MathLAN's PC/Linux system.
  Note that the syntax for the as assembler may not follow normal Pentium conventions. The resulting code, however, is completely equivalent.

While the schedule for this course is expected to evolve, a Tentative Class Schedule is available in .dvi , postscript, and pdf format formats.

Also, if you are logged into the departmental network and want a copy printed, click duerer to have a copy printed on the printer duerer, and click pacioli to have a copy printed on the printer pacioli .

This course will involve laboratories, written assignments, programs, and tests.

1. Laboratories: Formal laboratories are scheduled each Tuesday. Each laboratory will contain a variety of questions and problems; written responses are due the Friday following a lab. While not required, collaboration within a group is strongly encouraged for laboratory work.

2. Written Assignments and Programs: Exercises will be assigned regularly throughout the course, and normally all work covering the material for a week is due on the following Monday. (Work for the last week, however, is due on Friday, December 14.) There will be a penalty for turning papers or programs in late. Papers over two weeks late and any work after Friday, December 14, will not be accepted.

3. Tests: Following the tentative class schedule, the class will include a take-home test and two one-hour tests. The take-home test will be given out on Friday, September 24 and due on Friday, October 1. Two one-hour, in-class tests are scheduled for Friday, October 19 and Friday, November 22.

4. Programs: Several programming problems will be assigned throughout the semester.

5. Exam: Following the published exam schedule, an exam is scheduled for 2:00 pm on Thursday, December 20, during exam week.

Late Penalty: Work is due at the start of class on the date specified in the assignment. A penalty of 33 1/3 % per class meeting will be assessed on any work turned in late, even work submitted at the end of a class. Thus, work turned in 4 days late will be weighted -33 1/3 %; since a negative score reduces a semester total, it is better not to turn the work in at all.
Exception: Deadlines for programming problems and laboratory exercises are automatically extended at least one class day if MathLAN is down for an unscheduled period of 3 or more hours during the week preceding the assignment due date. (In such cases, however, deadlines for written assignments are not extended.)

Absolute Deadline: All homework must be turned in by Friday, December 14 at 5:00 pm.

The work in this course is split between individual and group work. Students are encouraged to work together on laboratory exercises. However, since this course seeks to develop individual understanding and mastery as well, collaboration is not allowed on programs or tests. The rules for collaboration on written assignments will be given for each assignment.

This instructor's grading philosophy dictates that the final grade should ultimately be based upon each student's demonstration of his or her understanding of the material, not on the performance of the class as a whole nor on a strict percentile basis.The following scheme is proposed as a base for how the various laboratories, assignments, programs, and tests will be counted in the final grade.

						Laboratory Write-ups:	50%		Tests:	30%
						Programs and Assignments:	N/A		Exam:	20%

This document is available on the World Wide Web as

http://www.walker.cs.grinnell.edu/courses/211.fa01/

created August 19, 1999 last revised November 9, 2001
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu.